Solaris: Patch Procedure for Mirrored SVM

NOTE: Please find the following as an example only. You may have some restrictions that will not allow
you to follow all step and could lead you to a very bad situation.

Assumption:

Note: metadevice d0, d1, d2 are part of the OS filesystem.

metastat -p

d0 -m d10 d20 1
d10 1 1 c1t0d0s3
d20 1 1 c1t1d0s3
d1 -m d11 d21 1
d11 1 1 c1t0d0s1
d21 1 1 c1t1d0s1
d2 -m d12 d22 1
d12 1 1 c1t0d0s0
d22 1 1 c1t1d0s0

vfstab:

/dev/md/dsk/d1 - - swap - no -
/dev/md/dsk/d0 /dev/md/rdsk/d0 / ufs 1 no logging
/dev/md/dsk/d2 /dev/md/rdsk/d2 /var ufs 1 no logging

Preparation:

- You can use my SOLARIS_patch-infoprep to gather SVM information before doing the patch.

1. Make sure that you have a full backup of all filesystems. In case you corrupt your filesystems, you have
the option to revert the server to its working state using the backup copy. Having the latest "explorer"
output is good to have too.

2. Verify that the server is in good state before patching by doing a normal reboot of server.

# shutdown -i6 -y -g0

3. After boot-up, make sure that no software/hardware issue were detected before proceeding to the next
step. You can check for "fail" and "error" entries in dmesg or messages log. You can also use "iostat -En |
grep Hard" for any disk failures.

4. Detach the mirror copies. In case you corrupt your filesystems, you have the option to revert the server
to its working state using the mirror copies.

# metadetach d20
# metadetach d21
# metadetach d22

5. Check the integrity of the detached mirror copies except for swap mirror. Fix any data errors, at your
own risk :)

# fsck -F ufs /dev/md/rdsk/d20

# fsck -F ufs /dev/md/rdsk/d22

6. Edit the vfstab and system files of the mirror copy. This is a necessary step in order for the server to
mount the mirror filesystems properly.

# mount /dev/md/dsk/d20 /mnt

# vi /mnt/etc/vfstab
/dev/md/dsk/d21 - - swap - no -
/dev/md/dsk/d20 /dev/md/rdsk/d20 / ufs 1 no logging
/dev/md/dsk/d22 /dev/md/rdsk/d22 /var ufs 1 no logging
# vi /mnt/etc/system
rootdev:/pseudo/md@0:0,20,blk
# umount /mnt

7. Reboot the server to check the single-copy primary disk.

# shutdown -i6 -y -g0

8. After boot-up, verify the state of the filesystems (single-copy). Make sure that no software/hardware
issue were detected before proceeding to the next step.

# df -k / /var (Must reflect d0 and d2)

# swap -l (Must reflect d1)
# iostat -En
9. Test the detached mirror copies. Go to OBP and boot the server on mirror disk. Assuming "disk1"

points to your second copy. Testing

# shutdown -i0 -y -g0
ok? boot disk1

10. After boot-up, verify the state of the mirror disk. Make sure that no software/hardware issue were
detected before proceeding to the next step.

# df -k / /var (Must reflect d20 and d22)

# swap -l (Must reflect d21)
# iostat -En

11. Reboot the server to boot the primary disk again.

# shutdown -i6 -y -g0

Start Patching

12. After boot-up, verify the state of the filesystems (single-copy). Make sure that no software/hardware
issue were detected before proceeding to the next step.

# df -k / /var (Must reflect d0 and d2)

# swap -l (Must reflect d1)
# iostat -En

13. Go to single user mode and start the patching.

# sync; sync; init s

14. Reboot the server to check the current server after patching.

# shutdown -i6 -y -g0

15. After boot-up, verify the state of the server.

16. DONE
When the patching goes bad

Option 1: Revert back the system state using the mirror copy

1. Go to OBP and boot the server on mirror disk.

# shutdown -i0 -y -g0

ok? boot disk1

2. After boot-up, verify the state of the mirror disks. Make sure that no software/hardware issue were
detected before proceeding to the next step.

# df -k / /var (Must reflect d20 and d22)

# swap -l (Must reflect d21)
# iostat -En

3. If dumpadm is using SVM (/dev/md/dsk/d1), replace it first with d21.

# dumpadm -d /dev/md/dsk/d21

4. Clear d0, d1 and d2.

# metaclear d0
# metaclear d1
# metaclear d2

5. Attach d20, d21, and d22.

# metainit -f d0 -m d20
# metainit -f d1 -m d21
# metainit -f d2 -m d22

6. Edit the current vfstab and system files.

# vi /etc/vfstab
/dev/md/dsk/d1 - - swap - no -
/dev/md/dsk/d0 /dev/md/rdsk/d0 / ufs 1 no logging
/dev/md/dsk/d2 /dev/md/rdsk/d2 /var ufs 1 no logging
# vi /etc/system
 rootdev:/pseudo/md@0:0,0,blk

7. Go to OBP and boot the server on mirror disk again.

# shutdown -i0 -y -g0

ok? boot disk1

8. After boot-up, verify that the server is now using d0, d1, and d2.

# df -k / /var (Must reflect d0 and d2)

# swap -l (Must reflect d1)
# iostat -En

9. Attach d10, d11, and d12 to sync their data with a working copy.

# metattach d0 d10
# metattach d1 d11
# metattach d2 d12

10. Complete the syncing before proceeding to the next step.

# metastat |grep sync

11. After sync is complete, detach d20, d21, and d22 to make d10, d11, and d12 the primary copy again.

# metadetach d20
# metadetach d21
# metadetach d22

12. If dumpadm is using SVM (/dev/md/dsk/d21), replace it now with d1.

# dumpadm -d /dev/md/dsk/d1

13. Reboot the server.

# shutdown -i6 -y -g0

14. After boot-up, verify that the server is still using d0, d1, and d2.
# df -k / /var (Must reflect d0 and d2)
# swap -l (Must reflect d1)
# iostat -En

15. Attach d20, d21, and d22 to complete the mirroring again.

# metattach d0 d20
# metattach d1 d21
# metattach d2 d22

16. Complete the syncing before proceeding to the next step.

# metastat |grep sync

17. Reboot the server for the last time (Optional).